The Impact Of Air Quality In China

Air pollution serves as the biggest concern in the realm of environmental problems in China. Two thirds of Chinese cities’ air quality are below the standards established by the World Health Organization (“Special Report,” 2004). Consequently, three-eighths of the population breathe unhealthy air on a daily basis inhaling tiny particles into their lungs resulting in an average of 1.6 million deaths per year from asthma, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease (Levin, 2015). Industrial emissions contribute

As the exploration of the industrial development and increased speed of the urban sprawl in Beijing, many severe environmental issues attribute mainly to the anthropocentric activities have been come out of the scene. One of them is the air pollution. Air pollution has been regarded as the most severe environment issue in China since it has already threatened to physical health, especially for the respiratory tract and lung. “In January 2013, Beijing experienced historical heavy air pollution. In this particular month, very few days were observed with blue sky.” (Lijian Han et.al., 2015) According to the analysis of the driving factors, “the population grew fast, and energy consumption and the number of vehicles increased rapidly” (Ju Zhang et.al., 2010), these factors add together can make the air quality worse than any one of them separately can. Firstly, it has been an undoubted truth that more and more people originally lived in rural has been moved to core urban of Beijing since there are more opportunities in there. Therefore, the huge explosion of urban population with more energy release and more CO2 exhalation is seen as an inevitably primary factor causing the bad air quality. What’s more, as the population

According to the EPA pollution recommendations, when a city reaches an air quality index (AQI) of over 400, all people should avoid going outdoors. Beijing’s highest AQI is 895. This impacts the daily lives of Beijing citizens immensely. Air pollution has been related to increased cases of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other respiratory illnesses. It is also associated with asthma in children.

In the past decade, the severe air pollution problem in fast developing countries, particularly in China, has caused highly social and scientific attention. In 2014, 92 % of the world population are exposed over to the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) PM2.5 concentration level of 10 μg/m3 (World Health Organization, 2016). Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution ranked as the third leading risk factor in India and Nepal, and ranked as the fifth in China (GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2016). In 2012, about 3 million deaths globally were attributed solely to ambient air pollution, and around 87% of it occurred in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2016).

Its adoption in 1997 and ratification in 2002 furthered the fight against anthropogenic interference with earth’s climate system. Canada’s commitment began with a goal to reduce GHGs by 6% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012, or 461 megatons (Canada and the Kyoto Protocol 2016). In order to achieve these goals, legal requirements expected policies and measures prepared by the participating countries to reduce GHGs, by utilizing all available mechanisms, including joint implementation to earn emissions reduction units (ERU) to be counted towards the target, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading (Kyoto Protocol 1997). Every year, on the date set forth, every participating country was expected to keep track of emissions limits and performance standards, develop spending or fiscal measures, as well their expectation for the next year and results from the previous (E. Canada 2013). When the first reduction timeline was up in 2008, instead of a decrease in emissions, Canada recorded an increase 24.1 percent higher than 1990 levels. The lack of commitment was superseded by the new government’s ‘Made in Canada” effort to push country-unified laws, though no significant changes were

In the article, “The Filth They Breath in China,” author, Michael Auslin, discusses the health concerns that citizens in China are forced to face, and how the country put itself in that position. China positioned the importance of its economic success, above the health of its people. The air quality has reached a state where people are urged to stay inside in order to avoid the dense smog. Also, industries have dumped an immense amount of waste into water sources, causing them to be unsafe for public use. These extreme living conditions should catch the eye of those living in the United States, in order to prevent the same from happening to them.

Stephane Dion (2007) published a summary of the liberal party’s proposal intended to decrease the carbon emissions in Canada. The liberal party suggested making the carbon emissions reduction not only a governmental concern but also the businesses need to get involved. This proposal recommended having a targeted goal so that all the businesses can be on the same page. The industries that would respect these new regulations and reduce their carbon emissions would be recognized and those that do not would be penalized. The party believed that the long-term positive effects outweigh socially and economically the negative impacts. The liberal party was certain that this new plan took into account the human lives threaten by climate change. Reading this article, the question that arose is: would this plan affect the economy of the country if applied?

poverty can be clearly seen. Southern climate change forces farmers to migrate which directly contributes to the level of poverty and adds to the suffering of the poor. Traditionally, these individuals would at least be able to survive through farming and growing their own food but in urban areas these individuals will be unable to grow their own food.

In the article “Beijing to Raise Threshold on Red Alerts for Smog”, it’s very interesting to know that finally China is doing something about their air pollution problem. For years and years they haven’t done anything because China doesn’t have the same rules and regulation as the United States of America. China produces a lot of products for different countries so that’s a major source of pollution also and they don’t have any kind of regulations on the smoke coming from the factories, and the air quality is terrible their as well. In the United States the EPA has the authority to shut down factories and tell them they need to make changes because we take pollution seriously compared to China who just takes it lightly which isn’t a good thing.

Canada is also known for dropping out of the Kyoto Protocol, which included 139 parties. Canada then switched to the Copenhagen Agreement. This agreement wants Canada to cut 17% of its emissions {Meyer,2009}. 4% of emissions have been saved since signing back in 2009. This plan will not work because Canada only reduced 4% of its GHG’s in four years, there is no detailed plan to fix the average 1% decrease by 2020 or the future {Wingrove, J 2015}. Another strategy created by the government is the carbon pricing mechanism. Alberta teamed up with the Climate Control and Emissions Management Act (CCEMA) and placed a tax for carbon emissions on all Canadian Oil companies {CSA Group, 2015}. The tax is $15 per tonne and the CCEMA expects and wants a 12% decrease of oil sands GHG’s each year {CSA Group, 2015}. Canada is an oil producing company and a change like this would need time but we can switch over to less GHG emitting mechanisms {Mansbridge, P 2015}. The CCEMA plan will not be very effective because Canada has done so little to follow its rules and be effective in the past, and now we are even deeper I trouble. If the oil sands didn’t pay much attention to rules of GHG’s before, who says they are going to change now?

Transport Canada integrates the works with its partners, stakeholders, general public, aviation industry, federal government departments, provinces, territories, municipalities and international organizations in order to reduce and prevent the environmental impacts caused due to air transportation operations. Transport Canada helps International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in developing international standards and suggested practices for the reduction of greenhouse gas and air pollutants emitted by aviation sources. Transport Canada also involves in ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) regarding aircraft engine emissions, noise and land use planning.

Reported as Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) in 2012, the Government of Canada has taken actions on climate change in both domestic and international. At the Copenhagen Accord in December 2009, Canada pledged to align with the U.S. target, this being 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 (3). To achieve this target, while on the one hand Canada proposed to control emissions. For examples, Canada has plans for addressing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) to help meet climate goals and improve air quality (4). Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), the government of Canada introduced it as “a group of greenhouse gases and air pollutants that have a near-term warming impact on climate and can affect air quality” (5). Canada solves SLCPs through enhancing science and communications to broaden understanding and engaging internationally, and building partnerships to reduce SLCPs on a global scale. On the other hand, Canada also focused on improving energy efficiency. For instance, the government builds smart, integrated clean electricity systems such as hydro, wind, and solar to afford power. Those are ways that how Canada address the climate

Possible policy instruments that are most likely feasible to combat and reduce emissions levels are cap and trade systems in the carbon market as well as laws and regulations that limit emissions or set standards for companies to follow during production in its industrial sector. Both of these have already been utilized by the Ontario government to mitigate emission levels. Ontario’s FIve-Year Climate Change Action Plan, 2016-2020 utilizes a cap and trade system that partners with Quebec and California. The cap sets a maximum limit of greenhouse gas pollution that can be emitted with a lowered limit every year. The trade

The Province of Ontario is not only the recipient of transboundary air pollution, but contributes

But despite the known adverse environmental effects of CFCs, a global ban could not be fully implemented. Since 1987, there is only a small fraction of nations that has joined, the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement that aims to reduce and eventually end the production of CFCs (United Nations Environment Programme, 2010). Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) is currently the next alternative to CFCs. HCFCs can also damage the ozone layer but is less harmful than CFCs. However, HCFCs are more expensive to manufacture as compared to CFCs. For the same reason, CFCs are still being produced especially in developing countries despite its adverse environmental impact. Such activities are the reason why some people believe that poorer countries are more inclined to damage the environment. It should be noted though that the application of such chemical compounds are not only confined in developing countries. In fact, developing countries are only used as a manufacturing hub but the real consumers of these products are located in richer, more developed countries in North America and